President Trump and his administration might try to doubt climate change and its effects, but a new federal report shows that the planet is warming steadily.

Researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on Thursday that 2017 was the second-hottest year on record for average global surface temperatures, eclipsed only by 2016.

2017 was the second-hottest year ever recorded, according to a new NASA report.

(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The NASA report showed that last year was the third in a row in which temperatures hit new highs, following a decades-long trend of sweltering seasons. The findings are almost definitely due to climate change, the scientists said, which is predominantly caused by greenhouse gas emissions created by people.

"Despite colder than average temperatures in any one part of the world, temperatures over the planet as a whole continue the rapid warming trend we've seen over the last 40 years," NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies director, Gavin Schmidt, said in a statement.

The NASA report was released in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which conducted its own study. The NOAA report concluded that 2017 was the third-hottest year since 1880, when temperature records begin. But both agencies agreed that the five warmest years have all been since 2010 and if not for the lack of an El Nino weather pattern of 2017, it would have been the hottest year ever recorded.

Findings from both NASA and NOAA were shown to be closely aligned with recent analyses conducted by the World Meteorological Organization and the UK's Meteorological Office — the two most widely revered temperature authorities in the world.